In memory of our brother and son, Robert Bagnell,
who died moments after being tasered by police in Vancouver, British Columbia on June 23, 2004. Bob was the 7th Canadian to die and the 110th in North America.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Halifax Regional Police threatened a mentally ill man, then almost immediately Tasered him during an altercation and later doctored a report about the scuffle, a lawyer alleged Monday at an inquiry into the death of Howard Hyde.

Enhanced audio from a surveillance camera in the booking room of police headquarters on Gottingen Street was played Monday for the first time at the inquiry in Halifax.

The altered recording — in which background music playing in the booking room at the time was removed so dialogue could be heard better — captures what sounds like a police officer’s menacing comment to Mr. Hyde, possibly about using a Taser on him, just before the men come crashing into the camera’s field of vision.

“What I hear is someone saying, ‘You’re going to be doing the effing dance next, Howard,’” Kevin MacDonald, a lawyer representing Mr. Hyde’s sister and her husband, repeated after the sound clip, using a benign substitute for the actual expletive.

Mr. MacDonald suggested the voice belonged to Special Const. Greg McCormick, who Tasered Mr. Hyde in the scuffle that followed.

Mr. Hyde died 30 hours later while still in custody after struggling with correctional officers at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth.

The 45-year-old musician had been arrested early in the morning of Nov. 21, 2007, while wearing only his boxer shorts. His common-law wife had reported that he had hit her at their Dartmouth apartment.

Mr. Hyde, who had schizophrenia and hadn’t been taking his medication for weeks, was initially calm and co-operative after the arresting officer, Const. Jonathan Edwards, now 23, took him to police headquarters.

But a scuffle broke out between Mr. Hyde and three officers — Const. Edwards, Special Const. McCormick and Const. Ben Mitchell — while he was being booked, and he was jolted with the stun gun seconds later.

Mr. MacDonald questioned why the three officers, each of whom is over six feet and 200 pounds, would grapple with the smaller Mr. Hyde for only two seconds before resorting to the Taser.

The lawyer said Special Const. McCormick did little to help regain control of Mr. Hyde, who was on the floor apologizing, before reaching for the Taser as soon as Const. Edwards suggested it.

“We can see that he did nothing — he didn’t lay a hand on him,” Mr. MacDonald said.

“He goes right for the Taser.”

Mr. Hyde somehow got away from the officers after being Tasered, jumped a desk and darted into a hallway that led to an exit. The camera monitoring the booking room picked up some audio from the adjacent area as the officers caught up to Mr. Hyde.

But the inquiry was unable to listen to any further audio from that part of the scuffle because the rest of the audio recording from the booking room video is missing.

Also unaccounted for are about 30 minutes of surveillance footage of Mr. Hyde in a holding cell before the fracas.

There is grainy video of what happened in the hallway as officers struggled to put handcuffs on Mr. Hyde and so-called zap straps on his legs.

Mr. Hyde’s heart stopped beating at some point during that part of the scuffle. He lost consciousness and police revived him using CPR before paramedics arrived and took him to hospital.

Mr. MacDonald suggested that if the three police officers had tried working together to regain control of Mr. Hyde without resorting to the Taser, they might have been successful. Mr. Hyde had his hands up at one point and apologized throughout the melee, the lawyer said.

Mr. MacDonald pointed to several passages in Const. Edwards’s report on the altercation that were identical to those in the report filed by Special Const. McCormick, who wrote his an hour earlier.

“I’m going to suggest today that you went in and used and doctored McCormick’s statement,” Mr. MacDonald said to Const. Edwards.

“These are identical words — they’re his words.”

Mr. MacDonald told reporters outside the courtroom that at least half of Const. Edwards’s report matched that of his colleague.

“I don’t know why they would do that,” he said.

“It’s a significant issue and they have to be able to justify what they’ve done.”

Const. Edwards said he didn’t recall looking at his colleague’s report before writing his own, and he asserted that his written account matches his recollection of events.

Mr. Hyde apparently started to resist the officers when they produced a utility tool with a serrated blade to cut the drawstring of his shorts, in keeping with rules for the lockup.

Const. Edwards told the inquiry for the first time on Monday that Mr. Hyde had reached for the tool, contradicting another report that Mr. Hyde had pulled away.

“I’m very skeptical to see that come out at this late stage,” Mr. MacDonald said of the new information.

Just before the scuffle, Const. Edwards can be heard on the surveillance recording telling Mr. Hyde to “take a seat there, Bud.”

“You seem to have frustration in your voice,” Mr. MacDonald said while questioning the officer.

Const. Edwards said he wasn’t frustrated and defended how quickly he and his fellow officers resorted to using the Taser. He said Mr. Hyde was overpowering them and was next to an unlocked drawer containing knives, scissors, screwdrivers and a sledgehammer.

“He was beyond control,” Const. Edwards said.

“He may be saying, ‘I’m sorry,’ but his legs and body are saying, ‘I’m getting up.’”

Const. Edwards said he couldn’t tell who was swearing in the surveillance video but was certain it wasn’t himself.

“I don’t believe swearing at prisoners is appropriate,” he said.

“Sometimes it does happen.”

The inquiry is examining how police and correctional officers handle mentally ill people and is trying to determine what happened to Mr. Hyde.

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taser-Related Deaths = 1043+ in North America

See "A LIST OF THE DEAD"According to Taser International, the taser had nothing to do with any of these deaths. According to a Reuters investigation, Shock Tactics - Part 1 - The Toll, published on August 22, 2017, more than 150 autopsy reports have cited tasers as the cause or contributor to deaths across the U.S. That number may be higher; however medical examiners and coroners are often not impartial but are instead biased in favour of the Crown or, as has been shown, they are under tremendous pressure from - among others - Taser International, to make a particular finding.See Judge rules for Taser in cause-of-death decisions

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Taser International finally admits risk that their weapons may affect the human heart

RCMP - TASERS POTENTIALLY LETHAL

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My Brother - Robert Bagnell June 27, 1959 - June 23, 2004

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2) Until such time as independent and unbiased study into the "real world" safety implications of Tasers has been properly completed, a moratorium must be imposed upon these weapons.

3) If, after independent and unbiased study has been completed, the Taser is going to remain in the police arsenal, it must be placed at a level equal to lethal force on the continuum of force and used only as a second-to-last resort.

4) Safety standards must be developed for Tasers. There are currently no Canadian safety standards in place for this weapon.

5) Police must not be allowed to investigate themselves but must be subject to independent and unbiased civilian oversight.

6) Families of people who die in police custody in Canada must be provided with funding so that they may be properly represented by legal counsel.

07. Robert Bagnell, 44 – Vancouver, BC - June 23, 2004 - X26 - "Official" cause of death: Consistent with restraint-associated cardiac arrest due to acute cocaine intoxication and psychosis. Bob's autopsy report showed marks on his body consistent to multiple taser shots, which incidently could not be affirmed by the pathologist because she could not explain those marks.

09. Samuel Truscott, 43 – Kingston, ON - August 8, 2004 - X26 - "Official" cause of death: Heart attack cause by drug overdose and "I can state categorically that the Taser did not play any role whatsoever in his death" said Chief Coroner for Ontario, Jim Cairns

24. Michael Langan, 17, Winnipeg, MB - July 22, 2008 - tasered 1 time - the autopsy report says Langan's death was caused by a heart arrhythmia brought on by the Taser shocks

25. Sean Reilly, 42 - Brampton, ON - September 17, 2008 - Peel Regional Police - X26 - tasered 2 times - the inquest jury will determine the official cause of death, however, “the forensic evidence indicated that the force used by the officers, including the Taser discharge, did not contribute to his death"

27. Trevor Grimolfson, 38 - Edmonton, AB - October 29, 2008, X26 - According to sources, after he was pepper sprayed, Trevor was tasered directly on the chest 5 times and tasered on the back of the neck 2 more times - Edmonton police said he was only tasered 2 times but testing on the tasers proves otherwise - "Official" cause of death: excited delirium brought on by drugs

29. Grant William Prentice, 40 - Brooks, AB - May 6, 2009 - RCMP - tasered 2 times - "Official" cause of death: acute cocaine toxicity and "the medical examiner also concluded the taser did not play a role in the death"

Ain't it the truth!

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80% percent of the population could be moved in either direction

Human rights activist Susan Sontag, when asked what she had learned from the Holocaust, said that 10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and that 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and that the remaining 80 percent could be moved in either direction.

THE Successes AREN'T the Problem

"The issue is not whether or not the taser can be used in a high percentage of cases to reduce death and/or physical trauma to officers and civilians alike. The issue is whether or not it's OK to kill the rest through ignorance and rationalization just because it's a small percentage ... The successes aren't the problem - the failures are. They're being told that tasers are nonlethal, so they blast away until people can't move. They're killing people by accident." Dave Siegler, father of Raymond Siegler, who died on February 12, 2004

The artistic side of Robert Bagnell

WE KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE

ROBERT ANGLEN

Robert Anglen, a reporter with The Arizona Republic, documented the first 167 Taser-related deaths. Mr. Anglen launched a journalistic investigation of Taser International, linking the Taser to multiple deaths, among other eye-openers.

At the 2005 Arizona Press Club Awards, Mr. Anglen won first place in the Investigative reporting category. He was the recipient of the Don Bolles Award for his report entitled "Taser tied to 'independent' study that backs stun gun'. “As part of an extraordinarily thorough investigation of Taser International, Anglen uncovered ‘smoking gun’ documents that showed the manufacturer was heavily involved in the key study that purported the devices are safe. Anglen also uncovered conflicts of interest and documented wide-spread problems with Taser safety — a matter of national and international public interest.”

In 2006, Mr. Anglen was a runner up for the Arizona Press Club's Virg Hill Journalist of the Year award. Peter Bhatia of The Oregonian wrote “Robert Anglen is an investigative reporter, pure and simple. Clearly, he is a reporter who, once he sinks his teeth into something, stays with it until the story is done. His ongoing work around the company that makes Tasers speaks to that."